Using Colour to Influence Your Audience and Develop Better Branding
Choosing colours for your brand and content isn’t just about what looks good. It’s also about how those colours make you feel. Deep in our subconscious, we all have instant associations that we make when we see particular colors. These associations can impact how your brand or business is perceived and what people think or take away when they see your content.
Here are some common colour associations and examples to keep in mind.
Red
Exciting, passionate, fiery, bold, energetic.
Orange
Fresh, friendly, confident, youthful, creative, adventurous.
Yellow
Optimistic, cheerful, playful.
Green
Natural, healthy, wealthy, peaceful, calm.
Blue
Communicative, trustworthy, calm, strong, dependable.
Purple
Creative, regal, flamboyant, smart.
Black
Balanced, calm, luxiourious, sensible.
Brown
Natural, rugged, dependable, earthy.
Identification Challenge
1) Can you name any words that might be associated with the brands and posts below? *Note that some of these samples may include more than one colour, evoke feelings not listed, and maybe even break some rules.
2) How do these brand make you feel? How would you describe their vibe or style?
3) How is this brand similar or dissimilar to yours?
Action Challenge
1) Want to see the power of color in action? Experiment with the colors in your brand, content, or even filters on your Instagram channel and see how it changes the overall feeling and style.
2) Get honest feedback from customers in real-time. Ask how the content makes them feel and what they think of the style. Are they repeating your messaging back to you or is there confusion?
3) Once you've found a style that feels right and is getting the right kind of reactions, implement this style across all of your marketing channels as a standard. You may also want to consider how you can bring this same look and feel into your physical brick and mortar based space.
